Applied Linguistics

Applied linguistics uses linguistic knowledge to address real-world language problems — especially language teaching, learning, and assessment.

Scope

It covers second-language acquisition and teaching, language assessment, language policy and planning, translation, and language for specific purposes.

Core questions

• How are second languages learned and best taught?
• How should language proficiency be assessed?
• How can language problems in society be addressed?
• What is communicative competence?

Key concepts

• Communicative competence
• Second-language acquisition
• Comprehensible input
• Language assessment
• Language policy
• Communicative language teaching

Key theories

Communicative competence

Hymes broadened linguistic competence to include the social ability to use language appropriately, reshaping language teaching.

Second-language acquisition theory

Krashen's input and acquisition-learning hypotheses influenced language pedagogy.

History

Applied linguistics grew around language teaching, shifting from grammar-translation to communicative approaches (Hymes) and second-language-acquisition research (Krashen), now spanning assessment, policy, and corpus methods.

Debates

How do learners acquire a second language?

Whether acquisition depends mainly on comprehensible input, interaction, or explicit instruction.

Key figures

• Dell Hymes
• Stephen Krashen

Seminal works

• hymes-1972
• krashen-1982

Frequently asked questions

What is communicative competence?

The ability not just to form grammatical sentences but to use language appropriately in social context (Hymes).